OTTAWA – NDP Agriculture critic, Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) is challenging all Canadians to join the International Day of Action Against Multinational Corporations begun today by Via Campesina to resist what they describe as “a privatisation robbery of the land, biodiversity, water, seeds, production, and agribusiness trade” by transnational agriculture and resource corporations. This year the global farmers movement is focussed on Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) food and crops, the company they see as posing the biggest threat to their survival.
“Monsanto’s new SmartStax corn was recently authorized by Health Canada without any health or environmental safety assessments whatsoever which is deeply alarming,” stated Atamanenko. “I urge everyone to be a part of today’s action and help inundate the Minister of Health with letters and phone calls demanding that the authorization for SmartStax be withdrawn immediately.”
Atamanenko referenced the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization report which says that another 105 million people worldwide have swelled the ranks of the world’s hungry this year, raising the total of those who are malnourished to 1.2 Billion or one sixth of all humanity.
“It is a poor reflection of the world’s food system when global hunger is rising as rapidly as the profits of agribusiness corporations,” stated the NDP Agriculture Critic. “Even as we watch the financial crisis wreaking havoc in other sectors of the world’s economy those who are consolidating their control over the global food supply are getting filthy rich. This year’s earnings for Cargill alone were their second-best in history which is now allowing them to open or expand their major processing facilities for canola, palm, soy and biofuels, much of which is genetically modified, in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ghana and the U.S.”
According to the NDP agriculture critic, it is critical for more Canadians to become more informed about the world’s food system and be moved to take action in support of the global movement against transnational corporations begun today. “It’s going to take all of us to break the corporate stranglehold over the global food and economic system and move to one that allows greater participation and control by the people,” concluded Atamanenko. “We must not allow ourselves to be complacent about an issue that ultimately affects all of us.”